Diocese of Joliet

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DIOCESE OF JOLIET (Dioecesis Joliettensis in Illinois)

Country : United States
Denomination : Roman Catholic

Established : 1948

Arms (crest) of Diocese of Joliet

Official blazon

Origin/meaning

The fleur-de-lys and the blue field honor the Blessed Virgin. Blue and gold are also the ancient heraldic colors of France. Both also commemorate the French ancestry of Louis Joliet after whom the diocese is named. The fleurs-de-lys are also from the arms of the Archdiocese of Chicago on which territory the diocese Joliet in Illinois was established.

The cross wavy represent the northern reach of the Missisippi River, which Joliet discovered with Pere Marquette. A cross was the arms of the ancient papacy and as such here as a diocesan symbol to honor the Church who added so much knowledge of the New World.

The triple mountain in base is taken from the arms of Pope Pius XII who established the diocese of Joliet in Illinois in 1948.

The square in the upper half of the shield is taken from the coat of arms of Saint-Franciscus Xavier: a gold and black chequered crescent on a golden field. Saint-Francis Xavier is the patron of the diocese and the cathedral of the diocese.

The crescent is correctly described as black-gold, but in last decades the moon is incorrectly mainly shown as blue and argent, chequered but also sometimes as argent with fretted horizontally and vertically blue lines.